China’s reaction to news on the Tibet situation is somewhat similar to the behavior of an ostrich: head in the sand, we know nothing, we hear nothing. What’s even worse is that the government is practicing an extreme censorship that says nothing good of China, after choosing to leave a significant part of its population “in the dark”, simply unaware of what is happening in Lhasa.

Internet censorship is nothing new to China, but going as far as refusing to even comment on their actions or maybe motivate them is beyond reasonable. The situation went on from prohibiting access to YouTube to banning other Web sites from showing any news related to the Tibetan protests and even closing Internet cafés.

That sounds rather strange for a country that said it encourages people to use Internet. As far as the general perspective on the Internet goes, it’s very much about freedom of speech, and if censorship is to be practiced in certain cases, completely banning any information related to the Tibet protests is a burden the Chinese government will have to deal with, as criticism comes from everywhere.

Filtering pornographic or violent material is one thing, but filtering information is unacceptable. Media agencies have been seemingly reserved in covering the subject on Lhasa protests, and only a few of them dared to provide information on the matter.

It looks more as if China is not willing to take steps forward towards freedom of speech and the right to information. Not only does the government refuse to discuss the matter, but it prohibits others from doing that too. News on Tibet did spread in China, but there are simply too many parts of it that haven’t even heard about it, because news agencies were reluctant in covering the story. It seems like the 210 million Internet users are now surrounded by a Chinese Great Wall of Silence.